Part of THROUGH OOZE and SLIME
Solo Exhibition at Galerija Na Katu, Zagreb, HR
Installation with:
Reactive Fungi Bodysuit & Mycelium Motherboard, 2023
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REACTIVE FUNGI BODYSUIT
Slip on and plug in!
for parallel sensing with fungi
The Reactive Fungi Bodysuit is a human-fungus-machine interface, a bodysuit with a sensory membrane colonized with mycelium of filamentous fungi and equipped with embedded intelligent electronic patches for signal processing. A user-responsive system designed to sense and process information from a hosting body linked with the wearable ecological unit, connecting neural and fungal networks.
Further below you can find the report on "What it is like to be a mushroom?" - with the first findings after wearing the Reactive Fungi Bodysuit - in a PDF.
------------------------------------------------------------------
A human-fungus-machine interface...
The Reactive Fungi Bodysuit connected to Pleurotus Eryngii (oyster mushroom culture), placed here in a
sensory membrane
Sensory membrane, electronic patches,
cables, mycelium filaments and mycelium heart, LED light
MYCELIUM MOTHERBOARD
plug in
sense fungi while they sense you
Mycelium of Agaricus bisporus networking through the soil, here at the opening,
10 days after starting the culture
humus, soil, white button mushroom culture, oyster mushrooms
wood, plastic, cables and tubes, LED light
The dry exhibition space gave the fungi a hard time to grow their sporing fruits (mushrooms)
However the gallery staff was very motivated and involved, determined to help the mushrooms grow. As they watered the mycelial motherboard as much as they could, mushrooms did pop-out at the end of the exhibition.
Mycelium of Agaricus bisporus (button mushrooms) was colonizing the soil and
mushrooms were growing during the exhibition from Jan. 18th - 31st
photo left taken on Jan. 29th in Zagreb,
photo right from my cultivation research
Mycelium Motherboard
detail at the exhibition opening with Pleurotus ostreatus
(blue oyster mushroom) cables, tubes, Agaricus bisporus
culture (white button mushroom), soil, humus
Fungal hyphae
knitting through
a fresh layer of humus
Fungi can send electrical impulses underground through
long, thread-like structures called hyphae, which ex-
pand and form a network of mycelium. The mycelium is
the fungal body, while the mushrooms are the fruits or
the organ that creates the reproductive spores.
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A MUSHROOM?
REACTIVE FUNGI WEARABLE & MYCELIUM MOTHERBOARD
Above: Mycelium Motherboard
fungal hyphae knitting through a layer of humus
close up
Below: Artist Maaijke Middelbeek wearing and testing the prototype of the Reactive Fungi Bodysuit.
Left: for the report with the findings of "What it is like to be a mushroom" see PDF
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mushroom
at the end of the exhibition...
During the exhibition in Zagreb mushrooms were growing from the Mycelium Motherboard, even though the circumstances were not that mushroom friendly in January with a dry heated exhibition space and closed windows. So these white buttons appeared with a bit of a delay, but that's how it goes working with other organisms that have their own needs and pace and do not always stick to the artsists' timetable.
I had planned to prepare a mushroom soup with kombu (algae) for everyone involved with the exhibition set-up in Zagreb, as an interspecies exhibition closing ritual. Instead I transported some of the cultures back to Vienna where I could eat and share mushrooms with friends for over 2 weeks. One culture I donated to the Mushroom Museum in Zagreb where they freeze dried it and made it part of their mushroom collection and ongoing exhibition.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPORE ME ! .....
SPORE ME!
willing to receive spores*
photo & illustration
2021
The space we live in is one of friction, of hybridity and entanglements. Or as anthropologist Anna Tsing writes "Everyone carries a history of contamination, purity is not an option."
*Spore: A small, usually single-celled
reproductive body that is resistant to adverse
environmental conditions and is capable of growing
into a new organism, produced especially by certain fungi, algae, protozoans and non-seed bearing
plants such as mosses and ferns.
An earlier interpretation of becoming with fungi...